I just completed the tutorial and a few early quests. I am probably not the best person to review anything shark based as I love sharks, have since seeing Jaws in 1978 aged 7 in a cinema in Cyprus with my dad.

The game looks pretty great, nice underwater and feel. Shark control is pretty simple but with plenty of moves and great fun eating things. Love the cruise option with the fin just out of the water. I loved scaring the swimmers in the tutorial

I played a good chunk of this last night, enjoying it so far. There’s exploration, moves to learn, goofy humor and things to eat. And naturally enough, things to be eaten by. The only real complication I’m running into is knowing what I’m supposed to be able to fight at this point and what I should avoid until later. You do get to advance through stages of your sharks’ life - I started as a pup and am now a teen, and I’ve taken on mass and power as a result of this. So I can put the hurt on muskies, for instance, that might have torn me up previously.

And there are also levels, like any rpg. Plus you can accessorize, for instance I found a set of bone teeth which gives me a bit more chomping power. But still, there are alligators out there that are on my quest list to take out. Yet they’re level 15 and I just hit level 8. Am I supposed to wait until I’m level 15, ignore the sidequest? I’ve tried taking them on and it’s doable if a bit tedious. And if there are other hostile fish or gators in the area of course they gang up on me and that’s pretty much it.

Anyway I do think it’s fun and Chris Parnell’s voiceover is a nice touch. We’ll see where things go.

There are no NPC characters, everything you encounter is either food or trying to make you food. There are quests, of the variety of killing all the apex predators in an area, eating all the fish in an area, eating all the humans in an area, you get the idea. There are collectibles too, but basic stuff that gives you experience, nothing terribly new there.

I’m finding a lot of satisfaction in growing my shark. There’s an interesting mechanic involved there that I haven’t seen before - leveling up will help make your stats increase, but as best I can tell the mass stat only increases when you hit a new life stage. And there is a dramatic increase from going from pup to teen to adult. Not to mention the funny commentary around doing so - when you become a teen, Parnell mentions that you’ll probably see an increase in angst and poor decision making. On becoming an adult, he mentions you should start spending less and saving more. OK, maybe that’s only funny to me.

But the mass increase makes for a satisfying difference in handling the other fish in the sea. As a teen, barracudas will challenge you and alligators will terrorize you. When you reach adulthood, you can snap up a barracuda in one bite and go toe-to-toe with most gators. It’s a gratifying mechanic.

@Jason_McMaster streamed this yesterday on his twitch channel for about 3 hours, I caught it today and really enjoyed what I saw. Also there were quite a few cackles of glee as he went on murder sprees.

Well, I beat the game. It’s pretty late and I’ve had a few beers so I won’t drag things out with a ton of impressions. But I’m glad I played the game, climbing your way up the food chain and getting more powerful (and more powerful enemies) was fun. All the mayhem you become capable of was pretty great. The mutations can make your shark look pretty goofy but it’s worth it for the powers they confer. There are a bunch of easter eggs that cracked me up (a pretty great Arrested Development reference, and some Lovecraft jokes) and the game was just the right length, didn’t overstay its welcome. I had a really good time.

Just finished this game! Love love LOVE it! In some ways it reminds me of the original crackdown, where you had witty clever voiceover (surprisingly non repetitive as well), compelling character progression, and LOTS of Mayhem! Added to my classic, play again folder!

I ran into a bug that stalled my campaign progression, and it says a lot about the game, that i kept playing anyway, then figured out how to resume it, so all good! 9/10

You could even call it Grand Theft Shark, because honestly, that’s what it feels like.

I would have said, the original Crackdown, because that is what it mostly closely resembles in presentation, playstyle, and feel. FYI i dont get the Souls comparison, I hated that, this is SOO much better…